Listening with Eli

This script and Idea was created by Elijah Pestana, an ITD intern for Miami Dade County. All information is subject to change. 

Media consolidation has some benefits but also has larger negative effects towards society if not properly addressed. Its positive effects concern primarily consumers and investors. For viewers and consumers of media, they can have more choices at a lesser price than what other competitors charge, allowing their audience to consume popular media in one multi-modal space. Those who oppose government control, would feel comfortable in a big-name company leading the advances of media and entertainment. Individuals who invest in large media conglomerates believe that these companies are innovators in the developments of the medium, placing risks and develop content that will be for the “betterment of all”. In summary, consumers wanting a platform where all their favorite blogs, news, and entertainment are in one space and for shareholders and investors, a successful venture that will never lose profit because it follows the norm.

With these benefits comes consequences. With a large number of media entering in digital streaming platforms, media consolidation can impact the originality and creativity in the media landscape as parent companies try to churn out as many productions as possible to fill their digital library (Doyle 2019). The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) a government organization that works to protect the public interests in the field of communication and media oversees how much control a large media companies have in the market (in other words media consolidation), In 2005 they relaxed the rules which began the harmful trend in where many small corporations and media entities were being bought out by these conglomerates. Although having more media companies and new networks in the market than in the past, only few are owned by local providers and are controlled by larger media “Families and parent companies” only looking into national and mainstream content (Kimmelman 2005).

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Now large media conglomerates have used their influence to shape public opinion before. In 2018 CNN journalists uncovered that the Sinclair Broadcast Group used its vast networks of 200 tv stations to broadcast a script where local news anchors repeated the same message to denounce “Fake news stories” from mainstream media to their local audience. Dead spin (2018) created a video edited compilation of all these news stations delivering the exact same script, in which these companies halted their local programing.

The issue is that a large media organization is making its rhetorical intentions as if was being said by your trusted local journalists and newscasters, in essence like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but instead of eating you, they manipulate you (the public) into thinking the way they want you to think. If one company has that much influence to shape public opinion, it can certainly affect citizen participation in our democracy

So, it is safe to say, media conglomeration should not be stopped but rather than monitored with more regulations and oversight. By identifying how media conglomerates influence consumers and seeing its flaws, we can see how a consumer should be more knowledgeable with the media they consume. With more content being created every day, users spend about 7-8 hours a day with media (Statista, 2021), they should be aware of how these conglomerates operate and have a space where they can comment on bettering the said content. The public should shift its consumption to media companies that are focused in their local communities and toward their personal experiences or companies that expand the bounds of debate and inform educational topics in a engaging and innovative way.

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This is part of a research project with Florida International University. Check it out in the Literate Consumer  

How a Media conglomerate influences a digital consumer

As media conglomerates, these large corporations have a lot of money and influence to go around, being able to advertise and produce more content than their competitors. This may be good for those who only want to consume entertainment, but they affect the way producers and media networks operate in the media landscape. Influencing creators to make content that is focused only to the national and mainstream markets then rather local and commutive programs (Kimmelman 2005). When big time television company HBO (now owned by Warner Media) released their show Game of Thrones, production companies attempted to create the “next big thing” and hopped in the fantasy, sword fighting, sex driven soap opera train; with shows like Starz Outlander, History Channels Vikings, and Netflix’s The Witcher. Treading from their off beaten path in order to capture the attention of mainstream audiences.

One company that places a large social imprint is the Walt Disney company. The media conglomerate has over 200 media companies under its belt (StudioBinder, 2021), with television studio like ABC and ESPN, entertainment mediums like Marvel Entertainment and Pixar animations, to owning impressive IP’s such as the Lucas films Star Wars franchise and the beloved Simpsons family under 20th Century Fox. This creates a culture where customers associate their childhood happiness with their experience with Disney, with them being a major producer in family entertainment, they a re able to create what they accepted as the “Model family unit” by cratering its childhood audience (Richard 2019). Here's a glimpse of what the Walt Disney co. owns.

As large-scale media conglomerates, the media outlet works to protect the company’s image and interests with its target audience and competitors. So any content, whether its informational like a news station or creative like a production company is filtered by their owners as a from of “self-censorship” (Chomsky 1988 see Ownership). Before a show or news article gets to the consumer, it goes through a pre-production and marketing phase so that it can be well received by the populace. Any negative response, or flak, towards the conglomerate is snuffed out by the company’s vast resources like legal teams or public relation firms (Chomsky 1988 see Flak). These tactics affect the digital consumer as they receive their understanding of culture, news, and entertainment from these large conglomerates of mass media, they will rarely find a dissenting opinion or different medium to choose from as they are only open to and know about the mainstream media producers.

This is a part of a research project with Florida International University Check it out in the Literate Consumer 

When the average person thinks about the media landscape, they usually think about what they see on a tv screen or in their smart devices: movies, podcasts, local news, sports networks and so on. The viewer only pays attention to the content rather than the production team or media company that works behind the scenes. In the United States there are over 176 media corporations and news outlets that control mainstream media. Of these companies, six of them control over 90% of media outlets in America (Legg, 2021); this means these media conglomerates, or multimedia groups, are the major producers of media content in the digital space.  With only a handful of companies controlling the media landscape, they can have a large sway in the American consumer.

If not properly regulated; media conglomeration could have horrible consequences such as: Affecting future content that is produced, manipulating an audience's consumption of media, and finally jeopardizing an individual’s freedom of expression.

By identifying how these conglomerates operate and observing certain case studies, we will see how media conglomeration can influence the daily digital consumer and discover the dangers of media conglomeration towards the small-scale competitor, the digital consumer itself, and the functioning of our American democracy.

A media conglomerate is when a company uses its resources to enter various sectors of the business world. In layman's terms, a corporation wishing to become a "multi-industry company". One big example is Amazon, an ecommerce company investing its profits in data servers, artificial intelligence, and in recent years media and entertainment. Conglomerates are also known as “holding companies”, when one company owns parts or all of other companies, known as “subsidiaries”.  This is like the Walt Disney company having stakes in big entertainment networks (StudioBinder, 2021), like 20th Century Fox, Marvel, Lucasfilm, ESPN, and ABC Network, they work independently while being overseen by the interests of the parent company. With all these companies their subsidiaries, a large conglomerate has the influence to shape a digital consumers habit and subconsciously, their decisions in their daily lives.

This is a part of a research project with Florida International University Check it out in the Literate Consumer  

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Forward for FIU Men's Soccer Andoni Garrogerricaechebarria shares the moment where he got his ACL torn in the soccer field with host Elijah Pestana.  #Sports #FIU #Soccer #Podcast

Wanna know more about how he recovered and his story. Click here to hear the entire interview at the FIU 3932 Sports podcast.

https://anchor.fm/elijah-pestana/episodes/FIU-3932-Sorts-Podcast-with-Elijah-Pestana-Guest-Forward-Andoni-Garrogerricaechebarria-of-FIU-Mens-Soccer-e1hm4jm 

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The following is an audio script of a Video essay that will explain the dangers of Media Conglomeration. The speaker will use visuals audio sources and case studies to inform the viewer of what is Media conglomeration and the effects it has in the digital consumer. This script and project is written by Elijah Pestana and is a work in progress.      

Welcome to Love Talk, a space where we invite guests where they bring their knowledge, opinions and experiences in the Five Love Languages, written by Gary Chapman. Today the Love Crew invited Eileen Grove, a Psychotherapist in South Florida, to better understand how the Five Love Languages affect Married couples, families, and platonic relationships.

Later hear the Love Crew discussing the topics in the interview and share our thoughts in how the Five Love languages affect age, culture, and the LGBTQ+ community.  

Links:

The • Love • Lingos – Exploring the Five Love Languages

Eileen Grove, Clinical Social Work/Therapist, Davie, FL, 33330 | Psychology Today        

Interviewing FIU Student Journalist Sabrina Beguiristain, where we talk about Sports Broadcasting, The power of Journalism in local communities and Sabrina's passions and aspirations in her career. Plus, I found out what are Goldendoodles!

Now we that we understand the players in the media world and how to consume knowledge content. We must understand the tools that companies and content creators use that make their arguments, stories, and ideas more appealing to the viewer and this begins with Rhetoric.

Here in this episode we will see how use rhetoric to critically see the world us. We will do this by breaking down topics like "Communicators and their audience" and the appeals of the rhetorical triangle. 

I invite you to take a look at our ongoing multimodal project tilted

Media literacy: Smelling the BS

Awareness of the Rhetorical Appeals in a Message